Chinese officials entered a church and ordered the removal of the first of the Ten Commandments, it was reported on 9 January.
About 30 government officers from a ‘patrol inspection team’ took part in the examination of the church. They inspected the church thoroughly, then stopped in front of the pulpit and pointed to one of the Ten Commandments on the wall, asking for it to be removed. After church officials protested, the Government official responded that President Xi Jinping ‘opposes this statement’.
The church official said: ‘Who dares not to co-operate? If anyone doesn’t agree, they are fighting against the country’.
He warned the church: ‘This is a national policy. You should have a clear understanding of the situation. Don’t go against the government.’
Resisting the Lord
Church members removed the Ten Commandments sign, but one said: ‘They’re falsifying the words of God! It’s resisting the Lord!’
The church had been targeted in August, when a cross was taken down.
‘In China, practicing your faith is difficult,’ a church member said. Another said that ‘they are trying to corrupt our faith and make us betray God’. All religious creeds must be subordinate to the government. What that amounts to is that religious citizens must first worship the Communist Party – only then can they worship their God’.
The church is a government-approved ‘Three-Self Church’ and not in an illegal, unregistered congregation.
